


Short circuit

by toflowerknights



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3292826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toflowerknights/pseuds/toflowerknights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What do you do in your spare time?" Bellamy asked once.</p><p>Finn didn't understand. "I serve ice cream," he replied. "What else is there."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Short circuit

When Finn was fifteen months, two weeks, five days, thirteen hours, twenty seven minutes and eleven seconds he met Bellamy Blake. It's a normal day. There was sun in the sky and just warm enough that you could wear only a thin layer of clothing. Finn knew, he observed.

The line to his ice cream van wasn't that long, but it was long enough that he rarely had breaks. Not that he needed breaks. He was one of the latest models of The Ark's Androids. The only time he took breaks was when he needed to reload. Which was every third day for thirty five minutes.

"Can I get two scoops of raspberry," a loud voice told him and Finn nodded with a pleasant smile.

"Of course, Sir," he said. "Will there be anything else?"

The man paid and left, and the pattern repeated itself. Later that evening, just as he had closed, a man hurried up to his van.

"Can I have two scoops of butterscotch and one vanilla, please?"

Finn made a sound in protest. "I closed five minutes and thirteen seconds ago," he said with a pained voice. He was made to be at hand, to be helpful and polite. but he was also programmed to follow rules, which this undeniably was.

The man groaned slightly and gave him, what Finn had heard described to him, puppy eyes. He pushed his curly black hair away from his eyes. They were dark and held emotions unfamiliar to Finn. If Finn had to guess, the man in front of him was sad. 

"Please, dude. I've had such a shitty day at work. It'll only take you a few seconds."

"Two minutes and twenty three seconds, to be exact," Finn enlightened him.

To his surprise, the man started smiling. "I'll remember that," he told Finn. "Please, would you take an extra two minutes and twenty three seconds to sell me two scoops of butterscotch and one scoop vanilla? I'll even pay you double."

Finn contemplated it for a few seconds, five, before giving the man a a small nod. He had a lot of freckles. "Only this time."

"Awesome, I owe you, man," the man said and his shoulders released some of the tension.

Finn looked at him out of the corner of his eye and as he scooped up the right amount of ice cream and put it in a cup. He placed it on the counter top with twenty seconds to spare, and accepted the money just as his internal clock hit zero. He nodded toward the man that it was okay to take the ice cream and he accepted it gratefully.

"Fuck, this is good," he told Finn with a moan. "I really needed this."

"I'm Bellamy, by the way," Bellamy told Finn. "What's yours?"

"TAA1502," Finn said automatically.

Bellamy's face fell slightly, but kept the smile on his face. "I meant your real one," he said awkwardly. "I mean, they give you names don't they?"

"Oh," Finn said in realisation, and met Bellamy's smile with one of his own. Politeness is key, his hard drive reminded him. "I'm Finn."

"Finn," Bellamy said quietly. "I guess I'll see you around." He raised his cup of ice cream in goodbye. Then he was gone.

Finn stared at the money in his hand so long that he didn't remember how much time had passed. No one had asked his name before. 

-

Bellamy showed up several times a week after that. He always picked the same flavours and he always stayed behind to talk to Finn if the line was short. Over the following few weeks Finn found out that Bellamy was twenty three years old, that he had a sister, liked a tv-show called friends and that he was studying history in college. They had long discussions about the romans and the greeks, and Finn would quickly look up every fact Bellamy wanted to know, without him having to ask. He told Finn so many things. Bellamy told Finn all about his classes and his likes and dislikes. Then he asked Finn about his. He made Finn talk until his artificial vocal chords were sore. Then he made him talk some more. Finn liked the attention. It made him feel alive. Human.

-

"What do you do in your spare time?" Bellamy asked once.

Finn didn't understand. "I serve ice cream," he replied. "What else is there."

-

"I met someone," he told Raven when he went in for upgrades.

Raven raised her eyebrows as she sat in front of him with a screwdriver tightening up the metal plate holding him together. "You met someone?" she asked distractedly and held a few screws in the corner of her mouth. Finn sighed fondly and grabbed them, making it easier for her to talk. "Thanks. That's nice Finn."

"His name is Bellamy Blake and he likes butterscotch and vanilla," he told her.

Raven looked up from her work. "Wait, you met a real person?" she said in surprise.

"That's what I told you," he replied patiently. "I sold him ice cream."

A small smile spread across Raven's face and Finn wished, not for the first time, that he could understand emotions. It would make conversing so much easier. He wouldn't have to guess every little colouring of the words spoken, or every flicker of their eyes. Sometimes Finn hated his limited knowledge.

"He was nice," he added as an afterthought.

"Yeah," Raven mumbled, now once more engaged in her work. "I'm sure he was."

- 

One day when Bellamy visited he had a girl with him. She had long brown hair and a wide smile. She looked at Bellamy with emotions unknown to Finn's system. They looked like they were positive though. It made something inside Finn ache. He would have to check that next time he was in for checkups. Raven would know what to do.

"Hey, Finn," Bellamy said, cheerfully Finn's hard drive told him. "How are you today?"

"I'm fine," Finn replied, politely as was proper. "The same as usual?"

"Sure, but add two scoops of hazelnut for my sis, will ya," Bellamy said and elbowed the girl in her side.

The ache in Finn's system disappeared. "Oh," he said. "This is your sister."

"Sure am," the girl in question replied. "Hi, Finn. I'm Octavia. Bellamy has told me so much about you."

At the words there was a slight buzz coming from inside Finn and both Bellamy and Octavia looked at him worriedly. Finn looked up at them, and in the reflection from the counter top he could see that he was blushing.

"Short circuit," he told them quickly.

Both of the Blakes laughed, as if he had said something funny, and he grinned slightly. 

"Is that what you call blushing these days?" Octavia said warmly. Finn liked her.

Bellamy didn't stay behind to Finn that day, which Finn found he didn't like. Instead he watched the two siblings as they sat down at a table further away. They laughed a lot. Octavia had her back against Finn, which meant that Bellamy was facing him. At some point Octavia flicked her spoon in Bellamy's face. Bellamy responded in kind by dragging his own spoon across her cheek.

His eyes caught Finn's, ice cream scattered over his freckles, and Finn felt heat build in his core. He really needed to get back to Raven soon. If this kept up he would be burnt out in a couple of weeks.

When the siblings were ready to go Bellamy hurried over to Finn.

"I can't stay today," he said, and he almost sounded sad. "We're going to see a movie. That she gets to choose, of course."

Finn smiled, even if it made him wanna scream. He shrugged, something Bellamy did a lot when he said something that didn't particularly bother him. "It's fine," he said, because what else could he say? "Octavia... you like her?"

Bellamy threw his head back and laughed. "Of course, Finn," he said, "She's my sister. I love her!"

Finn pondered it for a moment. "Love." He tried the word out. "What does it feel like?"

Bellamy stopped laughing. "What do you mean?" he asked. "You've never loved anybody?"

Finn shook his head, and by Bellamy's reaction he guessed that that was bad. There was times like these when Finn really hated what he was. When the real world looked at him like he wasn't real. He shrunk back slightly, letting himself be engulfed by the shadows.

"Hey, stop that," Bellamy said roughly. He rubbed the back of his head, making his curls stand in disarray. "It's... not something you can explain," he continued. "You just know. You'd do anything for that person..." He trailed off and looked at Finn with a searching look on his face. "You're sure you've never felt like that before?" 

-

"Bellamy has a sibling," he told Raven when she's repairing a tear in his outer shell. It's a long jagged line that went down to his wiring. He cut himself when he reached for a tub of pistachio earlier that day.

"I know, you told me" Raven replied him, "Octavia."

"Octavia," Finn mouthed. "Do I have any siblings?"

Raven smiled at him. "You have thousands," she told him.

Finn thought about it. It didn't seem logical. Shouldn't you meet your siblings? Shouldn't you know everything about them? He decided to test out his theory. "I don't believe you," he said. "I've never met any of them."

Raven's eyes softened and she gripped his chin gently in her hand. "You met them the day you were born," she told him.

Finn thought about it some more. "The factory," he said. "All those... androids? They are my siblings?"

"Yes, Finn," Raven said quietly.

Finn didn't reply in a long while. He focused on the slight creaking Raven's work made and the twinge he could feel in his body. He thought about what Bellamy had told him about Octavia, and found himself feel utterly at a loss. "I don't think I love my siblings like Bellamy loves Octavia," he said lowly.

Raven dropped her screwdriver. When he looked up Raven was staring at him. Over the year Finn had been active he had learnt more about human emotions and how they looked while feeling them.

Raven looked sad.

-

It was late. Finn was on standby looking out over the empty little square his ice cream van was parked on. It was quiet, save for the occasional person that walked by, drunk and loudly singing. Finn had never minded the quiet. It gave him time to reload and to sort through the data he might have gathered during the day.

It was different as of late. 

Now all his time was spent thinking about Bellamy. It was concerning. It was as if there was a screen in front of him replaying Bellamy's face over and over. Displaying him for Finn until it almost seemed disturbing. Finn tried to shut it off, but found that his thoughts strayed back to the topic rather quickly.

-

He was sitting next to Bellamy on a bench in front of his ice cream van. Bellamy was licking at his spoon with enthusiasm, and Finn felt... happy. He thought that was the proper word.

"Has anyone ever told you you're really pretty?" Finn asked.

Bellamy spun around to face him and a heavy blush spread from his neck up across his cheeks.

"You're red," Finn said.

Bellamy smiled slightly. "Short circuit," he whispered.

-

When Finn was eighteen months, one week, two days, twenty two hours, seven minutes and nineteen seconds Bellamy Blake kissed him for the first time.

-

After that Bellamy was around all the time. It wasn't that different from before, though Finn guessed it was seeing as they spent hours after closing making out between peanut butter and black raspberry. Bellamy was a clumsy kisser in that he needed to do everything at once. He needed hands in hair and arms around shoulders and legs wrapped around his waist. He needed to place kisses on Finn's mouth, cheeks, neck, torso and it made Finn so dizzy he nearly shut down.

But Bellamy was happy. He could see it, clear as day. And that was all that mattered.

-

"Well aren't you cheerful," Raven said teasingly as she replaced his rusty chest plate with a shiny new one.

Finn beamed at her. "Bellamy and I have been spending a lot of time... together," he explained. "I think he really likes me. His eyes lights up when he looks at me. I've read that it's a good sign."

"Sure, that's good," Raven said and held up her palm flat toward him.

Finn looked at her with a confused frown and Raven let out a fond sigh.

"It's a high five, Finn," she said and Finn's internal computer showed him the results of what a high five really was.

"Oh," he said and smiled at her, then promptly raised his palm and slapped it against hers.

-

Raven wasn't at his next upgrade. Instead there was an older man with a smile that didn't reach his eyes that greeted him.

"TAA1502?" he asked and Finn immediately felt like something was wrong. Maybe it was because he hadn't heard his product name in so long.

He nodded.

"Miss Reyes is out sick today, I'm afraid," the mechanic said with the same dead smile. "Come with me."

Finn followed in his footsteps and stepped up on the platform used for reparations.

"So, how do you feel today?" the mechanic, who still hadn't given him his name.

Finn perked up remarkably. "Oh, you know," he said. "Not that much to tell. I sold a lot of ice cream. Bellamy, I really like him, came to visit for a while and then I came here. I felt kinda sad when I realised Raven wasn't here. She's nice..." He trailed off as he saw the mechanic stared impassively at him. "Something wrong?" he asked slowly.

The mechanic blinked and gave him a thin smile.

"No, not at all... Finn," came his reply. "Let's see what needs upgrading, shall we?"

-

Raven was working idly on a TAA15 that came in for reparations for their shell layer early one morning. She worked methodically, focusing on the wiring, things she understood, in front of her. The quiet became too much for her after a while, so she had turned on the radio which was playing some undefinable pop song about falling in love.

"Are you Raven Reyes?" a quiet voice asked behind her, breaking through the music, and with a small gasp she turned around.

Behind her was a man, several inches taller than her and with unruly black hair that covered his eyes. Freckles were scattered like stars across his face and he had a jagged scar across his upper lip. He was pale and looked like he hadn't had any sleep for the last week. He looked exactly like Finn had described him.

She nodded and turned off the radio. Once she was off the stool she had been sitting on she pressed standby on the TAA15 in front of her. She didn't want it to listen to their conversation. "Bellamy, I presume?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Bellamy looked nervous. He was clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly, and looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else. "Finn," he said unsteadily. "I haven't seen him in a few days, which is weird since he's always in the same place. And he talks about you a lot, so I thought I'd find you and ask what happened to him."

The unease in Bellamy's body was evident. He was worried, knew something was wrong most likely. It was common sense after all. Raven laughed bitterly to herself. As if there was common sense to all this. She met Bellamy's gaze and softened her harsh expression.

"They shut him down," she said tightly. "He was showing... unexperienced complications."

Bellamy looked confused. "Complications?" he asked quietly and Raven bit her lip to keep herself from reaching out to comfort him.

"He was showing signs of feelings," she said and Bellamy's face fell remarkably. "If an android can feel, what's to say that they won't start thinking? Can't have androids who can think and feel for themselves."

The words were harsh and cut off fast, because Raven was hurting. Finn had been the first android she'd gotten to work with, and had come to love him like a friend. He always smiled and had wise words to tell her when she was feeling particularly sad. He had taught her a lot, even when it was supposed to be the other way around.

Bellamy let out a broken laugh. "I had kinda forgot he was one," he confessed quietly.

"I know," Raven replied. "It happens."

Unable to look at the heartbreak in the man in front of her she turned around and began to dig through her endless folders and drawers on her desk. "They predicted you'd come here, you know," she said and sorted through a big pile of envelopes. "Apparently they found endless data on you in Finn's hard drive. He had everything from your favourite food as a child to your current shoe size." She sighed deeply. "Hell, I even know your ice cream order. Two scoops butterscotch, one vanilla."

She found what she was looking for and turned back around. Bellamy's eyes were blank, but she pretended she didn't notice. "Here," Raven said and held out a thin envelope. "As I said, they figured you'd come around. They wanted to thank you for helping them realise that there was a problem with the TAA15's."

Her hand shook slightly as Bellamy reached out and grabbed the envelope. With slow movements Bellamy opened it and pulled out a check. A pained sound escaped his lips and it vibrated against the walls.

"They want to thank me for helping them kill him by paying me?" was his muted reply.

Raven's voice was dry as sandpaper. "Yes," she croaked.


End file.
